Attempts to discredit Israel are misinformed and shameful | Opinion

Each time an attempt is made to unfairly discredit Israel, freedom and justice there and all across the world suffer.

For decades, enemies of the truth have tried to sully Israel’s reputation by concocting extraordinary conspiracy theories devoid of evidence but rich in hate. They falsify stories, stage fake photos and submit them to news agencies, and incorrectly label Israel an apartheid state.

Anti-Israel deceptions are even being promulgated by American university professors at institutions of “higher learning.” Too often, American college professors disseminate the lies and adopt the shameful tactics of anti-Israel brainwashers. They fail to fact-check information, and educational platforms are grossly misused to further radical political agendas.

Sadly, this type of anti-Israel political bias just reared its ugly head on the campus of the University of Michigan. There, a professor withdrew his offer to write a reference letter for a student once he learned that the student desired to attend a semester abroad at Tel Aviv University where I studied abroad in college.

John Cheney-Lippold, a Michigan professor of cultural studies, wrote to the student: “I am very sorry, but I only scanned your first email a couple weeks ago and missed out on a key detail…As you may know, many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine. This boycott includes writing letters of recommendation for students planning to study there.”

John Cheney-Lippold did not just miss out on a key detail. Instead, he has completely missed out on the real facts about Israel and has apparently been blinded by the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

I have personally traveled to Israel a dozen times, and I have witnessed Israel’s irrefutable humanity firsthand. During my most recent trip to Israel last month, I visited one of my company’s Israeli clients Sheba Medical Center. There, within the walls of Israel’s national hospital, half of the children I saw being treated in the pediatric oncology unit were Israeli Arabs and Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza. Unable to receive proper treatment in the Palestinian territories, Israel generously welcomes them and literally saves these kids’ lives.

At Sheba, Israel goes above and beyond to indiscriminately provide Palestinian children, Syrian refugees and people of all backgrounds with the most cutting-edge medical care in the entire Middle East. It’s medicine without politics.

But those who seek to harm Israel don’t care about the facts. Instead, they conspire to isolate and turn the only Jewish state into a pariah state.

The use of academic and economic warfare to harm Israel through BDS is a hate-fueled tactic aimed at delegitimizing the country. Its proponents are targeting Israel’s very existence, not just its policies. This is pure anti-Semitism.

Ironically, the BDS boosters mislead uninformed people into believing that they are supporting a path to peace. But what they are actually doing perpetuates conflict and ultimately harms prospects for peace in the Middle East.

By seeking to deprive a University of Michigan student from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study abroad in Israel, Cheney-Lippold is giving BDS the political legitimacy it seeks but does not deserve.

Does this professor realize that his fealty to BDS equates to questioning Israel’s very right to exist as a Jewish state? Israel is the only Western-style democracy in the Middle East and America’s closest ally in the region. Not only does Israel share America’s values, but despite literally fighting to survive it has remarkably built itself into one of the greatest contributors to the fields of modern medicine, technology and world-improving innovation.

BDS, and its supporters are attempting to hurt Israel’s ability to be a positive force for change in the Middle East and the world, but they will never succeed. In 2016, this state took a strong bipartisan stance against BDS when the Florida Legislature voted nearly unanimously against BDS.

Naked anti-Israel bigotry will continue to fail, and Israel will not retreat from its unique role as a force for good.

Evan Nierman, who resides in Parkland, is the founder of the Deerfield Beach-based Red Banyan, a strategic communications agency that works with mission-driven organizations in America, Israel and around the world.